#6: Adele – 21

As you must know by now if you listen to the radio or music at all, Adele isn’t a secret anymore. In fact, she broke Billboard records and became the biggest artist of 2011 – by far. Her songs were everywhere and everyone fell in love with a young 22 year old that has the world at her feet.

Her highly anticipated U.S. arena tour sold out in just minutes, but later had to be canceled due to ongoing throat issues that subsequently led to a (successful) surgery.

Although the charm that Adele brought in her debut 3 years ago is certainly prominent and it’s just about as close to perfection as a pop artist can get, I had to move her down to this 6th spot based on the fact that breaking new artists have become my thing.

I can honestly say that all of the remaining albums on this countdown (the top 5) were very close in ranking and it became more about the lesser-known artists than an artist like Adele that already had her chance to shine on this countdown in 2008.

Rather than embed a video of one of her 2011 singles that have been played to death this year, I decided to grab a live performance of one of my favorite songs on the record (which happens to be her newest single – Uh oh!), “Set Fire To the Rain.” Enjoy this, since her live performances have been hard to come by this year.

If you are one of the few people in the world that didn’t purchase this album yet, you can do so at Amazon.